North Vision Song Contest 18
|return = |withdraw = |vote = Each country awarded 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favorite songs |null = None |winner = "No Hero" |pre = 17 |nex = 19 | Green = Y | Green SA = | Purple = | Red = Y | Yellow = Y }} North Vision Song Contest 18, often referred to as NVSC 18 was the 18th edition of the North Vision Song Contest. It was held in Brussels, Belgium after Selah Sue won the seventeenth edition with her song "Fear Nothing". It was the first time that Belgium hosted the contest. VRT chose Forest National to serve as the host venue for the edition while An Lemmens and Maureen Louys were selected as the presenters. Fifty-one countries participated in the edition with Egypt making their debut appearance. Albania, the Czech Republic, Israel, Luxembourg and Montenegro returned to the competition after their one edition absence while Bulgaria, France, Monaco and the Netherlands announced their withdrawal from the edition each for different reasons. Italy was the winner of the edition with the song "No Hero" performed by Elisa which got 186 points. This was the second time after the twelfth edition that there was a tie between the winner and the runner-up. Andorra finished as the runner-up according the tie-breaking rules. Norway finished on third place while Iceland and Estonia completed the top six of the edition. It was the first edition since the twelfth edition that no countries of the big 6 finished in the top 6 with Belgium, who finished thirteenth, achieving the best place from the big 6. Location Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium, the French Community of Belgium, and the Flemish Community. The region has a population of 1.2 million and a metropolitan area with a population of over 1.8 million, the largest in Belgium. Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been a major centre for international politics and has become the polyglot home of numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants. Brussels is the de facto capital (or one of three capitals including Luxembourg and Strasbourg) of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions. The secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are also located in Brussels. Historically a Dutch-speaking city, it has seen a major shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is an officially bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages. Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. Bidding phase }} One day after their victory, Belgium announced that there would be a bidding phase for the selection of the host city. The bidding phase kicked off on 28 January 2016 with two cities applying to be the host of the edition: Hasselt applied with the Ethias Arena with a capacity of 21,000 while Antwerp submitted the Lotto Arena with a capacity of 8,000. On 30 January 2016, it was announced that two more venues joined the bidding phase. The first was the Forest National located in the capital city, Brussels which can hold up to 8,000 people. The other venue was the Sportpaleis with a capacity of 23,001, making it the second venue from Antwerp to join the bidding phase. The host city was revealed to be Brussels along with the theme presentation on 31 January 2016. Key }} Host venue Format Semi-final allocation draw The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 6 February 2016 at the Le Châtelain hotel in Brussels. As the pre-qualification round would take place after the draw, the spot for the two PQR qualifiers were drawn first. The big 6 countries were first drawn to determine in which semi-final each would country vote. Denmark, Poland and Turkey were drawn to vote in the first semi-final while Belgium, Slovakia and Slovenia were drawn to vote in the second semi-final. The rest of the thirty-eight countries were divided into six pots, based on their geographical place. Each time a country was drawn from the pot, its semi-final and half of the semi-final was determined. Spain was pre-allocated to perform in the second semi-final for scheduling reasons. The six pots were the following: Running order draw The draw that determined the running order of the edition took place on 29 February 2016 at the Le Châtelain hotel in Brussels. Two countries from each semi-final and a big 6 country received a wildcard and could select their starting position at their half (first or second). Kazakhstan and Germany got the wildcards from the first semi-final, Finland and Andorra got the wildcards from the second semi-final while Slovakia got the wildcard of the big 6. During the running order draw, the semi-final of the pre-qualification round qualifiers were also determined. The running order draw for the semi-final qualifiers took place after the results of each semi-final with each of the qualifiers drawing their starting position. Participating countries Countries in the first semi-final Countries voting in the first semi-final Countries in the second semi-final Countries voting in the second semi-final}} Fifty-two countries participated in the edition. Five countries returned to the contest: Albania, Czech Republic, Israel, Luxembourg and Montenegro returned to the contest after their one-edition absences. Egypt also made their debut appearance in this edition. Four countries, however, announced their withdrawal from the contest. France and the Netherlands cited the change of the Head of Delegation as the reason of their withdrawal. Both Bulgaria and Monaco originally confirmed their participation in the contest but later withdrew from the edition, the first due to strife within the broadcaster and the latter due to missing the songs deadline. Returning artists Arilena returns to represent Albania after her participation in the ninth edition. Maria Elena Kyriakou returns to the competition after also competing in the ninth edition. Meanwhile, Lora returns to represent Romania after singing for them six editions earlier. British singer Leona Lewis participated in the contest for the third time, after previously competing for Ireland in the third edition and for the United Kingdom in the fifteenth edition. German singer Madeline Juno returns to the contest after having represented Portugal in the sixth edition. After representing Finland as part of PMMP in the sixteenth edition, Vesala returned to represent her country as a solo singer. Sofi Mkheyan returns to the contest after previously represent Armenia in the fifth edition. Hungarian singer Joni represented Hungary for the second time after the eighth edition. Portuguese singers David Carreira and Ana Free both return to the competition, Carreira having previously represented the country in the tenth edition and Free having previously represented the country in the third edition. Klara Elias has previously taken part for Iceland as part of Nylon in the fourth edition and as part of The Charlies in the twelfth edition. Vintage are once again representing Russia after having done in the first edition. Results Pre-qualification round Five countries participated in the ninth pre-qualification round. Belarus and Ukraine qualifed to the semi-finals, while Croatia, Latvia and Morocco were eliminated. Semi-final 1 Twenty-one countries participated in the first semi-final. Denmark, Poland and Turkey also voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final. Semi-final 2 Twenty-one countries participated in the second semi-final. Belgium, Slovakia and Slovenia also voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final. Final Twenty-six countries participated in the final, with all fifty-one participating countries eligible to vote. Non-qualifier results Voting grids Pre-qualification round Semi-final 1 12 points Semi-final 2 12 points Final 12 points Other awards North Vision Awards North Vision Awards 18}} The twelfth ceremony was held for this edition. The ceremony took place in Warsaw, Poland, the runner up of the seventeeth edition. The nominees were revealed on 29 May 2016 and the voting started two days later, on 31 May 2016. The winners were revealed on 5 June 2016. OGAN Second Chance Contest The eleventh OGAN Second Chance Contest took place for this edition. The OGAN clubs of each country could submit one of their national selection entries to compete in the contest with some rules applying for the entries. Sweden won the contest with Ida LaFontaine and her song "Go Again". Incidents Greek jury disqualification Shortly before the announcement of the first semi-final results, the executive producer of the contest Jan Simonis announced that the Greek jury votes were disqualified due to them being announced before the results. The votes of the country were based solely on the country's televoting results. Other countries Countries that are active members of the North Broadcasting Union (NBU) are also eligible to participate in the North Vision Song Contest. As in every edition, an invitation to all the members have been sent in order to confirm whether they will participate or not. Fifty-one countries confirmed their participation in the edition. The following list of countries declined stating their reasons as shown below. Active NBU members * : Despite their initial confirmation, on January 29th, BNT announced that Bulgaria will not be taking part in the upcoming edition due to obtaining their worst result in NVSC history in NVSC 17. Many Bulgarian musicians withdrew from the planned national selection and the broadcaster was dealing with internal strife. The broadcaster had no comment about a future return. * : It was confirmed that the country withdrew due to undergoing big internal changes. The country is expected to return in the nineteenth edition led by a new head of delegation. * : TMC had originally confirmed the country's participation in the pre-qualification round. However, the country was forced to withdraw after they missed out the deadline for the songs. * : The country was forced to withdraw its participation due to sending an entry breaking the basic rules of the contest. NBU non-members * : Nessma confirmed that they have no interest in returning to the contest. International broadcasts and voting Voting and spokespersons # Rasmus Thude # Iveta Mukuchyan (Armenian representative in the second edition) # Never Sol (Czech representative in the eighth edition) # Luina (Kazakh representative in the ninth edition) # Ida LaFontaine # Adele # Justs Sirmais # Mária Čírová (Slovak representative in the fourth and thirteenth edition) # Ramona Rotstich # Marija Šerifović # Agnete Johnsen # Artem Mekh (Ukrainian representative in the seventeenth edition) # Samra Rahimli (Azeri representative in the seventeenth edition) # Alessandra Mussolini # Esma Redžepova (Macedonian representative in the third edition) # Alexandrina Hristov (Moldovan representative in the third edition) # Daniela Simbič Mohamed Bouhezza & Said Karmouz (Algerian representatives in the seventeenth edition as part of The 5) Mary Byrne Mariam Chachkhiani (Georgian representative in the seventeenth edition) Déborah François Mark Styrke (Kazakh Head of Delegation) Dalal Heiðrik á Heygum Roma Acorn Carolin Kebekus Kurt Calleja Beata Tiškevič Neda Parmać (Croatian representative in the tenth edition) Ylenia Mikael Saari Rachel Bloom (Swiss representative in the fourth edition) Yasmine Al Massri Goga Sekulić (Montenegrin representative in the fourteenth edition) Andri Karantoni Vava Voom (Liechtensteinerin representative in the ninth edition as 'Börni') Mohamed Ragabi Eneda Tarifa Ana Mena Mei Finegold (Israeli representative in the eleventh edition) Alina Eremia María Ólafsdóttir Rakele (Sammarinese representative in the seventeenth edition) Jan Pirowski Ezgi Avci Klelia Renesi Ahmed Soultan Freddie Dmitry Shepelev Leonor Andrade (Portuguese representative in the sixteenth edition) Jonathan Reichling (Luxembourgian representative in the fourteenth edition) External links * Forum Category:NVSC editions Category:NVSC 18